updates

This weeks task was to get my environment blocked out with the majority of the assets and interactivity i want to have in my finished level in so that i can tweak later on. my first task i want back and started a new terrain because the original was always just a rough test, And i then helped to block out the scene with some foliage using the terrain brush and the foliage brush to get a natural placement look and dropped in a test gare because that will be a big vocal point in the level.

Once i roughed out the level i know i want allot of subtle movements to bring my level to live so made some wind material to hit grass and trees which  helps add some life.

Snow particles was one of my original ideas for my level and really makes the level allot more dynamic and brings more atmosphere. And the fire and moon to be the main light source which i think  could bring some very dynamic lights contrast from the deep red fire mixing with the blue moon.

After some feedback it was pointed out that the saddle and Armour are hard to read because there not much depth or color range so i gathered reference and did a paint-over to try and get some different color schemes and see what i could come up with. 

Looking at reference it seems there saddle were allot more vibrant and interesting than i original thought, so i need to try get some of these nice colors to come through and pop, which i think should bring a nice contrast to the environment.

environment paint overs

moodboards

I wanted to do some really quick paint-over's to try get a feel for the mood and lighting  in my level and sense of what assets i will need to populate my map. At the moment my level seems to bright and i like the idea of night scene with snow falling and the campfire being the main light and maybe some moonlight.

If i find time i think it would be really interesting to have trees moving in the wind snow falling and fire from camp site. which is allot to try and achieve in two weeks but i think if i prioritize my asset and time i can do it especially if leave some of the interactive level parts to be polished in the polish time iv gave myself.

 In the book temujin camp is up hidin away in a Forrest mountain of the plains so that passing by mongols wouldn't kill them but as a safeguard hes set up defenses around the tree line so that his family could escape while provides a distraction which lead to him getting caught.
which does leave an opportunity for some interesting assets depending on time, but my assets in level will be the gare the camp fire and foilege around the level to frame it.

horse update

Final sculpt turnaround's im quite please with my horse and Armour and i think fits in well with my project, well after feedback of the sculpt the main was that the head was broad and neck dint look slender enough which may be true to the breed but to help it read better to general public i tapered in the neck abit to make it look more like everyone is used to seeing.

Retopolgy went well i think after working on two characters my work flow from 3ds max to zbrush and back and retop has become alot more efficient, i had to be careful with the loops thought because i know i want the horse to have a good animation will no deformation so i spent some time keeping it  clean. but before finishing texturing im going to rig and get a test animation on the horse while working on the textures at the same time.

Once i finished the retop and unwrapping i put a first color pass down and dropped it in to udk ti get a feel for the scale and ive found cutting out playing with materiel in 3ds because its just a longer process when its going to be viewed in udk.

Environment 

Testing out some environments to set my characters i started by using terrain  brush to build up some interesting shapes. I also tried out the materiel for the ground and testing different ways to show snow through painting on the terrain.

just quickly using the udk terrain to get in an environment and try and get some life in scene with the character animation and the smoke and flame coming from the camp starting to get a sense of the overall product could look like.

I also so made some text poses to see how temujin could look in scene and to see different options of him being tired up or in a neck constraints.

horse/war pony

Originally i thought i was going to make an armored pony as that's how they are described in the book but i did some research into that time and the horse breed they rode in Genghis khan era, and seems there actually horse but because there short there often refereed to as pony's almost donkey like. But the horse im going for is the domesticated mongol horse bread from all over but is closest to the przewalski wild horse but the domesticated mongol horse are slightly less bulky and bread for spread and strength but still look very similar.

 przewalski wild horse

So i built a base mesh around some reference images not to complicated because i find it quicker to get proportion in zbrush so made some sub tools and built up layers on the horse to help with the armored look.

http://www.mongolianmumbles.com/2011/07/nadaam-horse-racing-speical-event.html

http://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-derby/#whats-the-mongol-derby

I found this blog with some really interesting pictures of people racing the horse and it gave me a really good sense of scale which will help alot with the characters.

basemesh

Looking at the reference they look a fierce horse breed and i like the idea of the aggressive Mohawk i think brings alot of character to the horse.

Trying to get some good anatomy structure nothing to defined as it will be covered in Armour but just to make sure i have good foundation and looks realistic.

breaking down muscle groups

all the subtools

rigging and engine

I decided to put my characters in udk before carrying on with anymore texturing or rigging to see how looks with lighting and see the major changes i need to make. im quite pleased so far how they look in engine the lighting makes them look a lot better then the default 3ds max viewport. 

rigging at first the rig looks quite amusing and terrible i used the simple fairy dance bip animation just to see the major problems with the rig. Once i tackled those issues i decided to pose the character in the position he will be in the level and then carry on rigging around that because he wont be standing and will be tied up with a simple struggling and head movement animation. 

I quickly imported a test pose just see how it looked in the scene not the final rig just looking into how to get the animation into udk.

my first test animation went slightly wrong because i fully rigged without using bone tools so,when i went through the tutorial to get animation in udk was to late but lucky it was only a test rig so i quickly made another test rig and did a quick animation and got it working in scene. and it works fine so now i no how to it i need to decide on some poses and final animations to how i want to present it in the final product.

updates 

Once i got the base down for the texturing i started adding some basic color detail like hair and bruising. For  face i think the main aspect that is really gonna bring out his damaged parts of the face from reference of beaten up people the and looks very wet and shiny which the specular will be used to bring that out.

Once the base color are down the main focus is making the characters look unique next to each other so anything i can do to make them look the same theme but different im going to try and do.

 The color at the moment both look very bland so and boring so getting some reference i got and took some color palettes and made some changes to make temujin pop more  and then once the colors and detail is done ill add in damage and dirt to make him more realistic. 

 I sent of screen shots of my work for feedback and got some good feedback the main thing was bring out the colors more and changing little things to make the silhouette more interesting. and to bring the skin tones up because there looking to dull and desaturated .

 These are screenshots of my work before and after some of my feedback i think for temujin though the color still need to be brought out more.

I also took some more time on the alphas on toe lui face because the hair style and the alphas wernt looking very realistic so i put in slightly more geometry because they were looking to flat. i think although i wont both characters to look very different i want to add slight bruising on toe lui because he had to fight temujin to capture him and dint come away unscathed.